Newsweek covers the campaigns...

[Nubbins]

I read chapter 1 yesterday and they posted 2, 3 and 4 today.  These are fascinating reads... they give you real insight into the campaigns.  It humanizes the whole process a lot more.  I kind of wish we could see this stuff before the election honestly.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167582

"When you have to be cheerful all the time and try to perform and act like [the tape is unclear; Obama appears to be poking fun at his opponents], I'm sure that some of it has to do with nerves or anxiety and not having done this before, I'm sure. And in my own head, you know, there's—I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. When you're going into something thinking, 'This is not my best …' I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' Instead of being appropriately [the tape is garbled]. So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f–––ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

But McCain's closest friends knew a more complicated man, more human, not necessarily less heroic, but whose virtues were also his flaws. They observed his restlessness and noted that he seemed incapable of serenity, that he could never really relax (except, perhaps, to watch a football game). One Arizona friend observed that he always seemed to be in a rush, as if he were making up for the years he'd lost in prison. McCain seemed to have an almost pathological desire not to be left alone, a hangover, some aides surmised, from his many months in solitary confinement as a POW. He seemed to need to be on the bus sparring with reporters; he was bored by staff briefings on the minutiae of polling and tactics. At one point, when the campaign was talking to charter companies about airplanes, someone suggested a plane for the candidate and staff and a separate plane for the press. The response from several other staffers was, are you kidding? McCain would dump the staff and take the reporters on his plane.

[Nubbins]

hahaha these articles are great.

On Sunday, Jan. 13, Clinton got worked up in a phone conversation with Donna Brazile, a direct, strong-willed African-American woman who had been Al Gore's campaign manager and advised the Clintons from time to time. "If Barack Obama is nominated, it will be the worst denigration of public service," he told her, ranting on for much of an hour. Brazile kept asking him, "Why are you so angry?"

[Nubbins]

Staffers were trying to work, sort of, and ignore the sounds coming from the office of communications director Howard Wolfson. "He's going to ruin this f–––ing campaign!" shouted Phil Singer, Wolfson's deputy. No one was quite sure who "he" was, but most assumed it was Penn, the chief strategist who was in more or less constant conflict with Hillary's other top advisers. Wolfson said something indistinct in response, and Singer cut loose, "F––– you, Howard," and stormed out of his office. Policy director Neera Tanden had the misfortune of standing in his path. "F––– you, too!" screamed Singer. "F––– you," Tanden started. "And the whole f–––ing cabal," Singer, now standing on a chair, shouted loudly enough to be heard by the entire war room. "I'm done." Within a week or two Singer was back, still steaming and swearing. "If the house is on fire, would you rather have a psychotic fireman or no fireman at all?" Wolfson explained to Williams.

[Cassander]

look, we all want to look at it as some kind of magic, but, really, campaigns are businesses, run just like any other.  either you have a good one or you don't.  it's not like in the movies where everyone loves the candidate and they all fall in line and make copies and file reports and someone else makes the coffee. 

clinton was fucked from the beginning.  it was like apple trying to suddenly make itself work like dell. 

plus, on an added note, can we get into a discussion about Schmidt vs. Plouffe?  from what i've been reading, especially the NY Times article (and i'm not giving that 100% trustability) Schmidt single-handedly picked Palin and turned McCain into Gore from 2000, a reactionary, poll-watching, episodic whore.  meanwhile, Plouffe gets the honors for turning VA, NC, NV, and Iowa blue. 

my real question is, how the fuck do you get to be a campaign manager?  it's obviously almost all smoke and mirrors, but apparently a distinct few can get it right, or, at least, are like half-drunk blackjack hounds who break even, act cool, and never let the secret slip that they were drunk the whole time and basically improvising everything.  who ran the McCain office from 1976 onward?  why wasn't he tapped to push the Brand nationwide?  instead we get this off-the-cuff silver-tongue who not only convinced him to 1)suspend his campaign for Wall Street-gate 2) pick Palin and 3) buzz the tower on the first debate?  how does that guy not get fired from day one for sniffing glue? 

[Nubbins]

They definitely mishandled McCain... it also sounded to me like there were a lot of people with ulterior motives in both the Clinton and McCain camps, which ultimately doomed them.

It's also easy to point at Schmidt and go "what the fuck were you thinking?!" about Wall Street-gate, Palin and all the rest, but hinsight's a motherfucker.  Before the election, I was pretty sure that those things spelled doom for McCain, but it wasn't really until Pennsylvania and Ohio fell that I knew it for certain.

[Nubbins]

Last chapter's up!

After the first debate, McCain and his handlers reviewed the videotape. Why, one aide asked him, did you never look at Obama? Because you told me not to! McCain retorted. It was true. McCain's debate coach, Brett O'Donnell, had noted Obama's tendency to look directly at an opponent while attacking, and he had instructed McCain not to get sucked in by meeting his gaze. But McCain had taken the advice a little too literally. "We didn't tell you not to look at him at all," one aide chided him.

[Nubbins]

hahaa!!

At the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2, McCain was delighted to see that Sarah Palin had irritated Biden. Watching the TV with some aides, McCain exclaimed, "He looks like an angry old senator!" The staffers were awkwardly silent, unsure if McCain appreciated the irony of his statement and hoping that he would experience a flash of self-recognition in time for his own performance in debate No. 2, just five days away.

[Nubbins]

heee

Irrepressible, Lindsey Graham had started calling his Senate pal "Joe the Biden," which McCain found inexplicably hilarious.

[nacho]

Shared this around with the family over the weekend...but still haven't gotten to it myself. 

[RottingCorpse]

I'm a Newsweek subscriber, so I got this on Friday. Finally finished it yesterday. What's interesting is how it humanizes everyone.

[Tatertots]

That always amazes me, when you find out that event he most powerful people in the world are, you know, people like the rest of us, in some ways.

[Nubbins]

Well, plus... the political process we all just endured is so bitter and polarizing that it's kind of nice to see the "other guy" from a different perspective.  In my case, it was McCain.

The thing I don't understand is that this article, apparently, is some kind of tradition that happens every 4 years.  So that means each cycle, reporters go along with the campaigns and document everything... the infighting, the mistakes, the hail-mary strategies and the subversive propaganda machines of each party are exposed for everyone to see.  You'd think we'd get wise to their tactics so that they'd have to change their gameplan... but I guess we don't, because it's constantly the same shit every time we have to elect someone.

[Nubbins]

Interesting Newsweek clip featuring a few of the journalists from the story:

Palin 'One Step' From Stealing